In Washington, D.C. last week, Google's non-profit arm, Google.org, held a conference on plug-in hybrids. If you, like us, weren't able to go but still wanted to see some of the luminaries - dare I say celebrities? - of the plug-in movement, the check out what Plug-In America's Stefano Paris has made available.

Paris has archived the webcast of the event, all eight hour's worth, in one hour segments. He also added a few tags to the video to highlight the speakers, so viewers are able to jump to a particular spot in the video. Paris wasn't just a viewer at the event - his submission in the video contest, called "The Power of Electric" and created with help from Alexandra Paul (Baywatch) and other PIA members, was screened as the conference opened.

I've embedded the first hour of Paris' video after the break, but you can watch the full eight hours (and more) here.

Just yesterday, Ford's Mark Fields gave a speech in Washington, D.C. asking for U.S. government help in developing plug-in hybrids. Today, the Department Of Energy announced a $30m, three-year, three-project PHEV funding program that is intended to help create vehicles that can drive 40 miles on battery power. ETA of these vehicles is "cost-competitive by 2014 and ready for commercialization by 2016."

The three PHEV projects are:

• General Motors has been selected for negotiation of an award for a project aimed at enhancement of Lithium-Ion battery packs, charging systems, powertrain development, vehicle integration, and vehicle validation. Following development, the PHEVs will be deployed over a three year period into a demonstration fleet in three regions of the U.S. Other team members include Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
• Ford Motor Company has been selected for negotiation of an award for a project to identify a pathway that accelerates commercial mass-production of PHEVs. The project will focus on development of battery systems and deployment of prototype PHEVs. The project will test and demonstrate the propulsion system design, controls, and communications necessary to develop a viable PHEV production program. Team members include Southern California Edison, Electric Power Research Institute, and Johnson Controls-Saft, Inc.
• General Electric has been selected for negotiation of an award for a demonstration of PHEVs that relies upon an innovative dual-battery energy storage system capable of 40 miles accumulated electric driving range. The project will focus on developing the dual-battery energy storage system in parallel with vehicle integration. GE is partnering with Chrysler for this project.

Read the details from the DOE. While plug-in advocates will certainly welcome this news, the DOE isn't funding PHEVs the same way as other gasoline alternatives. For comparison, the DOE recently announced $130m for fuel cells and $86m for cellulosic biofuels.

[Source: DOE via Green Car Congress]

A Wall Street Journal story today highlights the promise and potential problems with plug-in cars. More accurately, it highlights the problems and shoves most of the promise to the bottom. As automakers ready plug-in hybrids and electric cars for market, the sensational headline poses a clash of the titans: "Utilities, Plug-In Cars: Near Collision?"

As gasoline reaches $4 a gallon, the benefit to consumers of transportation energy at about $1 per gallon (equivalent) is undeniable. And if one reads down to near the end of the story, one finds the studies that show the tremendous upside in terms of carbon emission and petroleum reduction. As the article makes clear, as long as most plug-in cars charge up at night, the American electrical grid can already carry the load of more plug-in cars than are likely to be produced for a decade or more. Of course, night time charging is also more convenient; most cars are parked at night and used during the day. Still, the utilities are already exploring ways to ensure cars utilize the low-cost, excess capacity existing while consumers sleep, including incentive pricing, time of use metering, and smart meters.

And the environmental benefits reported are extraordinary. If enough plug-ins were on the roads, we could see oil consumption cut by 6.2 million barrels a day and U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions cut "by 450 million metric tons annually, equivalent to scrapping 82 million cars." Where the grid is comparatively clean, as in California, switching to electricity is a no-brainer. More surprising, the story reports, "Carbon-dioxide emissions would probably fall even if coal-fired plants made the electricity, some studies have found, because they burn coal more efficiently than automobiles burn gasoline." Of course as the electric grid becomes cleaner and more renewable thanks to state and federal mandates, the cars charging actually get cleaner, too.

[Source: Wall St. Journal]

All you Prius owners out there who have been waiting patiently to to start running on grid power can almost stop holding your breath. Hymotion, the company that has been developing a plug-in kit for the Prius, has now started taking deposits for the L5 conversion kit. The kit costs $9,995 plus $400 for shipping and, of course, any applicable taxes. That price includes installation at an approved shop and a three year warranty. The first deliveries and installations should start this July.

The kit consists of a 5kWh battery pack filled with A123 lithium ion cells that fits into any second-generation (2004-2008) Prius. The pack can be fully charged in 4.5 hours at 110V and Hymotion claims a converted Prius will get up to 100mpg for 30-40 miles. Your mileage will of course vary. The pack has been crash tested and meets all current federal safety standards. Hymotion was bought up by A123 last year after doing a number of conversions for fleets and government testing.

[Source: Hymotion]

EnerDel's lithium-titanate battery has been independently tested by the Center for Transportation Research of the
Illinois-based Argonne National Laboratory. For the tests, a stock Toyota Prius had its nickel metal hydride battery pack replaced with a new 1kWh lithium ion unit from EnerDel. No problems were reported, despite the fact that no additional cooling modifications were made to the vehicle or battery pack. Additionally, a test was run which was intended to predict what the battery pack would be capable of if the Prius were converted to a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). Test results were promising, with the EnerDel-equipped Prius achieving 77.41 miles per gallon on the city test. Although these results are just an approximation of what a PHEV Prius could offer, they are still promising. Also of note is the fact that internal resistance of the pack was reduced by sixty-seven percent over the stock Prius pack.

According to the press release pasted after the break, EnerDel's pack could be half the size of the Prius' stock pack while still offering the same performance, meaning that a similar-sized pack as stock would offer twice the power potential. Thanks for the tip, Jan!

Click on the image for more high-res shots

What in the world is a plugless plug-in? That's the question we were asking ourselves as we read over the press release pasted after the break. It seems that MIRA, a design, development & certification consultancy in the UK, has created three removable battery packs which fit in the trunk of a car and can be removed separately for recharging. This scheme has a few benefits, especially for those individuals who do not have access to an outlet where they park, as the batteries can be moved to a better location. Also, those batteries could be used in other applications, for instance as power when you're camping or for other outdoor applications like quads or electric bikes.

MIRA calls its system H4V, which stands for "Hybrid 4wd Vehicle," and it uses lithium ion phosphate batteries. The current test-bed is a Skoda Fabia, which normally returns 39 mpg in the combined cycle. After the H4V system was added, the vehicle was able to attain 64 mpg on the same driving loop, which represents a 61 percent improvement. Equally as important, tailpipe emissions were reportedly reduced 39 percent. MIRA projects a price of approximately £2000 for a retrofit H4V system.

A new four year plug-in hybrid test program is kicking off this spring in Quebec City, Quebec with involvement from battery supplier EnerSys, financial cooperative Desjardins and Laval University. EnerSys is a supplier of industrial batteries and its subsidiary ModEnergy will be supplying lithium ion packs to Laval researchers. The team will work to optimize the performance and durability of packs when installed in vehicles. Ultimately, if the initial phase of the project is successful, between 10 and 50 privately-owned plug-in hybrids will be put into service. The participants will evaluate the performance and efficiency as well as the financial aspects of operating plug-in hybrids. This will be a very interesting study to watch over the next few years because it may tell a lot about the real viability of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles in cold climates. My own personal experience with hybrids in cold temperatures has been less than exceptional. Quebec City in the winter is one of the coldest major cities in North America.

[Source: EnerSys]

Reader reaction to last week's California Air Resources Board vote to cut the ZEV Mandate by 70 percent was pretty resoundingly negative (although it's only fair to note some of you said the result was a good thing). Automotive News' Richard Truett has written an article that finds the decision's silver lining: it created a "sizable" market for plug-in hybrids. While pure EVs took a hit in the revision, automakers are now required to sell 66,000 PHEVs between 2012 and 2014. Considering you can't buy a single one today, this would be a nice change. Truett notes that Chrysler, Honda and Nissan could be face "major headaches" to comply with the rule, since they don't have any PHEVs in development. At least, there are no public plans for such vehicles from these companies. Smart grid PHEV charging technology is here, at least in testing form. What plug-in vehicles will we Californians (and people in the dozen or so states that adopt California's auto rules) be able to buy in 2012?

[Source: Richard Truett / Automotive News]

Ford's test program for the Escape plug-in hybrid is expanding beyond the original partnership with Southern California Edison (SCE). The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will join the program, setting up a group of utilities in the New York-New Jersey area that will also participate in the test program of the twenty PHEV Escapes that Ford is building. The Escapes will initially be tested in California by SCE after which the fleet will be shared with the EPRI group.

The expanded test program will help increase the understanding of the potential impact of plug-in hybrid vehicles on the electrical grid. Including northeastern states in the testing will allow the evaluation of the impact in different regions and weather conditions. The collaboration among utilities in different areas should help them to standardize what kinds of accommodations need to be made to the grid and power generation systems to accommodate larger numbers of plug-in vehicles. More after the break.

Related:

• 95 years for a PHEV conversion to pay for itself in gas savings?
• ABG First Impression: Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid w/Video

As the California Air Resources Board meets today to vote on revisions to the ZEV Mandate, the voices calling on CARB to not kill the electric car all over again are rising. Jim Woolsey, Tesla's Ze'ev Drori, the Sierra Club and many more are telling CARB to keep the EV alive. Another voice, perhaps unexpected, has now joined the chorus: George Shultz, who was Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State.

Schultz has written a letter (PDF) to California Governor Schwarzenegger asking that the governator intervene and call on state air regulators to promote plug-in cars instead of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This seems unlikely to me, considering Schwarzenegger's love of hydrogen cars and his Hydrogen Highway effort. Schultz said hydrogen cars are not a "near-term technology" and added that other states look to California's leadership in the alternative fueled vehicle scene. We'll have more on the CARB vote later today and there are more details after the jump.

At the New York Auto Show last week we had our first opportunity to actually go for a drive in one of Ford's new plug-in hybrid Escapes. Last year Ford announced a partnership with Southern California Edison to build and test twenty plug-in hybrid Escapes. SCE will be using the crossovers in their fleet to evaluate performance, durability and mileage. They will also be testing out vehicle-to-grid technology using the Escapes. For our drive, Chief Engineer Greg Frenette accompanied us on a half hour drive around Manhattan, mostly in stop and go traffic. We also had an opportunity to open it up a bit on the West Side Highway.

The Escape that Ford brought out to Manhattan was the first of the twenty prototypes being built for the program over the next year and a half. According to Frenette as they build the vehicles they will be changing as the company learns from the previous iterations. The current model is based on the 2008 Escape Hybrid with the 2.3L four cylinder. Future vehicles that will be built starting this summer will use the upgrades planned for the 2009 models including the new 2.5L engine. The primary mechanical changes for this unit involves swapping out the standard 2kWh nickel metal hydride battery pack in favor of a 10kWh lithium ion pack along with a charger and a plug mounted in the left front fender. Aside from that, most of the changes are in software with different calibrations to optimize the use of the lithium battery. Continue reading about the plug-in Escape after the jump.


[Source: Ford]

Last year, Google made some waves when they announced the RechargeIT project to convert a fleet of Toyota Priuses and Ford Escape hybrids to plug-in capability. The company has just issued their first progress report on the program, and the results may be disappointing for those promoting plug-in conversions. Right now the only way to get a plug-in hybrid is to buy an off-the shelf model like the Prius or Escape and than install a $10-15,000 conversion kit. Unfortunately, as we learned from a recent interview with GM's Pete Savagian, a conversion PHEV provides a limited additional benefit over a conventional parallel hybrid because the motors typically don't have enough power to drive the vehicle under most conditions without the engine turning on.

The other issue is that as fuel efficiency increases, the incremental savings in fuel use actually decrease. This is more apparent if you use the European units of fuel consumption which is measured in L/100km. If consumption is reduced from 12L/100km (19.6mpg) to 6L/100km (39.2mpg) you would save 6L on a 100km trip. Doubling mileage again going to 3L/100km (78.2mpg) only saves an additional 3L. This is apparent when you take an already efficient car like the Prius which starts at 44.6mpg and increase it to the 66.2mpg that Google saw. The result over 12,000 miles of annual driving is 88 gallons of fuel saved. At $3/gal, that's $158/year (after factoring in electricity costs). At that rate the $15,000 conversion would take 95 years to recover the cost. Ouch.

Google points out that most of the driving was on short runs where the engine often runs early in the drive to power certain vehicle subsystems. Longer runs would increase the mileage further, but you still have the issue of diminishing returns. With gas at $5/gal and a conversion cost of $10,000, the payback drops to a mere thirty years. Until vehicles are actually engineered from the ground up as PHEVs and mass produced to bring down cost, the cost benefits simply won't be realized by people doing conversions. Reduced emissions and oil use, though, should still take place.

[Source: Google.org via CNet]

Smartlets. Sounds like a new, electrolyte-filled candy or something you plug into your MacBook. Instead, Smartlets are one idea that would provide power to plug-in electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt or the Saturn Vue.
Partners Richard Lowenthal, CEO of California-based Coulomb Technologies, and Praveen Mandal will describe Smartlets to attendees of the Plug-In Car show in San Jose, California this July. According to Automotive News, Loenthal envisions Smartlets available for EVs and PHEVs in urban areas where people normally park their cars: parking lots, offices, stores, etc. Of course, Smartlet-like chargers are already available (for free) in some areas, like London.

GM likes the idea, but is taking a hands-off approach, but GM's vice president of global program management. Jon Lauckner, told Lowenthal and Mandal last fall that Smartlets are "a good idea." Of course, even though the Vue and the Volt are likely to be among the first plug-in vehicles available from a large automaker, Smarlets would probably be compatible with many plug-in vehicles, at least those that use a standard plug and can accept 110 or 220 volts. We'll need a wait a while to here more about Smartets. The Coulomb Technologies website says the company "is currently in quiet mode."

[Source: Jamie LaReau / Automotive News]

Many of you were critical of USA Today for publishing an article recently about a study on the relative cleanliness of plug-in vehicles. Those of you who joined the criticism have something in common with the Electric Drive Transportation Association, which has sent a letter to USA Today's editor that calls the article misleading and
pointing out items that the reporter, James Healey, minimized in his article. EDTA president Brian Wynne also sent out an email (read it after the break) that describes his organization's displeasure with Healey's piece. His email is more directly critical of the article, saying it "used selected information, creating unlikely scenarios and misleading implications about grid-powered transportation." Wynne writes that the electric drive community was unified in its criticism to the USA Today piece, a unification that will probably be tested more and more as new people try to understand what it means to have a plug on a car.

Bloomberg editors selected as the lede of a story yesterday about former Chrysler head Lee Iacocca the comment that Cerberus is doing the right thing with Chrysler, the AutoblogGreen audience might be more interested in something buried down at the bottom of the article. Iacocca made comments on PHEVs vs. hydrogen that are, for us, more interesting, no? Iacocca clearly took a stand on the future powertrain debate, saying that, "Plug-in hybrids: that's the wave of the future, not hydrogen." Unfortunately, the Bloomberg article doesn't go into any sort of detail about why Iacocca said this, but I think it's safe to say that he was persuaded by author Sherry Boschert's present last year.

Iacocca also stated his belief that the U.S. needs a universal health care system because that would give the domestic carmakers and other companies a boost. Iacocca has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson, who supports such a system.

[Source: Bloomberg / Alan Ohnsman and Peter Cook]